Atalanta

I studied Classics for my BA, so I have a thing for classical imagery. This is the tale of Atalanta from Ovid's "Metamorphoses" Book 10 (I had to look that up to check, but I remembered correctly! Book 10!)

Hippomenes is throwing golden apples, so that he can distract Atalanta, and beat her in a race (and win her hand in marriage, although rather more importantly it seems to me is to avoid the penalty for losing, which is death). He doesn't seem in that much of a rush here, though, but still, I love this painting, the composition and drama is great.

I drew this back in 2011, from a photo of the original, by Guido Reni, which can be seen in Prado.